FAQ:Private Messages
Abusive PMs
This guy sent me a PM and called me a jerk! That's a personal attack and he should be suspended!
Since Privates Messages by their very nature are private, administrative intervention is kept to a minimum. Admins get involved in PMs if they are extremely vulgar, contain threats of physical violence against the recipient, or are spam. If you are getting unwelcome private messages you have the option of blocking them. At the bottom of the PM, click on the link that says "Block User's Private Messages".
I received a very, very vulgar PM, how do I alert you?
If you would like Admin to review the situation, please send a copy/paste of the PM. Sending the URL to the offending PM will not suffice since it will not work for anyone other than the sender and recipient of the PM. To be clear, Admin cannot view private messages even when a link is provided.
Private messages are for the intended recipient only and copies of the PM or references to the content should not be posted publicly without the sender's prior explicit approval. Users failing to abide by that privacy rule are subject to administrative sanctions up to and including account termination.
Access to PMs
Someone said that Admin regularly read PMs. I thought these were private and don't think that's right!
Admins do not have access to the contents of PMs nor can they read them even if a link is sent. From a practical point of view, consider that there are tens of thousands of Users on this site posting over a million new posts each month. Admins are very busy reviewing the hundreds of public posts brought to their attention via the TOS Report, in addition to the dozens of PMs and Support Requests sent to them each day. Admin does not have the time, energy or interest in trolling though PMs even if the access were available to them.
This guy alerted me to a stock pick earlier and now it's not in my inbox? What happened?
When reports of PM spam are sent to Admin, the database is queried for evidence of this. When it's clear that the User was indeed spamming via PM, then a program is run to remove all spam instances. The message can be viewed in your mailbox under the Inbox Archive tab.
My PMs are gone. Where did they go?
The PMs that you send or receive will never go away. They are all stored in your Archives. Every PM that you have received or sent is accessible from your Archives.
Go to your mailbox. Click the "Inbox" or "Outbox" link where it says "Archives" at the top on the left.
You might also want to go to "Settings" and click the "My Settings" tab. Scroll down to where it says ""Messages per Category in Mailbox" and set it for 500. Click "Update" at the bottom of that page.
Now, when you are in your Archived PMs you will see the last 500 PMs. If you want to look further back go to the bottom of the list and click on "Previous 500".
Other
How do I send a Private Message?
New PMs:
- You can send a non-reply private message from a user's profile. You get to their profile by clicking their alias on the website, or in the mobile app by clicking on their alias and then tapping Private Reply at the bottom of the screen.
Reply PMs:
- The Private reply link can be found on any public or private message by that user.
- The location and appearance of the Private Reply link will vary depending on the size of your device (desktop, mobile device or mobile app).
Notes:
- Only logged-in Premium Message Board subscribers can send private messages to other users. Everyone can receive private messages.
- All users can send Private Messages during Happy Hour on Fridays 4:00 -5:00 PM Eastern.
- Any user can send Private Messages to iHub and ADVFN staff accounts.
I got a private message from a freebie - I thought this was a feature only for people who paid for a sub?
Non-subscribers can send PMs during Happy Hour on Fridays from 4:00pm - 5:00pm Eastern.
